PSCU Top Left
Volume 5 | Issue 21| Through May 8, 2012
Antoine Du Chez Mothers Day     
Best Western   
Get Golf Ready      
Tapp Auto        
Fitz Apartments Ad        
Cedar Creek         
 
Helipad
A rooftop landing place at last When the new tower opens next year it will be crowned in a way the AIP never was -- with a rooftop heliport for landing emergency medical air transport.   >>More
Heart Failure Program sails over Joint Commission certification bar Thoroughly impressed by the program's integrated, multidisciplinary care, the surveyor had a question: why didn't the hospital go for advanced certification? "We have to crawl before we walk," Cardiac and Vascular Center Executive Director Lorna Prutzman replied.  >>More
Leveling the paper mountain Inpatient staff will get a new, faster, simpler online employee performance evaluation tool this year, and wave good-bye to stacks of Excel and Word files. The rest of the departments should get the new app next year. >>More
Hands across the network A new application allows referring physicians to connect to UCH's electronic medical record to check their patients' progress. It's an important piece of the hospital's effort to provide more timely information to and build closer relationships with community providers.  >>More
 
Abbie Beacham
A psychologist for hypertension? The AF Williams Family Medicine Clinic has made psychologists an integral part of its primary care team, believing that chronic medical conditions like high blood pressure and obesity are closely linked to mental and behavioral health issues. It's a paradigm shift in the health care world, which traditionally divides medical doctors from mental health professionals, says psychologist and team member Abbie Beacham, PhD (left).   >>More
Richard Zane
The disaster doc New Emergency Medicine Chair Richard Zane, MD (right), has devoted his career to helping helping hospitals and other emergency responders prepare for disasters. Ideas and tools he developed have been put to the test in New Orleans, Haiti and Japan. >>More
 
Script Rewrite
Call the script doctors...health care needs a rewrite  In This Hospital Life: The stars of our hard-living past were the docs, drug companies and medical device manufacturers we called on to cure our ills. In the new belt-tightening era we clearly need new talent. Plus: "What You Read."      >>More
No budget, no problem The idea: prepare more nurses to get professional certification. The challenge: no budget. But UCH nurse educators (left to right: Andrea McFarland-Mullen, Amanda Nenaber and Kristin Wikler) convinced some 240 nurses -- many from out of state --to attend continuing education courses. And to pay for them. >>More
 
Monique Davis
The Voice comes to UCH More than a dozen brave souls warbled their way through the hospital's annual karaoke-style songfest. Left: Monique Davis killed softly with her song. >>More
Goose Family
Around UCH Our regular round-up of goings-on, big and small, in and around the hospital. This issue: hospital's mother goose hatches a family (right); leaders flip the flaps; kudos for PVHS; more. >>More
 

Breathing room for a patient He had untreatable lung cancer, a "Do not resuscitate" order and a wish to make a long return trip to his western Colorado home. With help from colleagues, MICU nurse Claudia Urenda, winner of the DAISY Award for Exceptional Nurses, made it happen.  >>More
 
Take Your Child to Work Day
Kid stuff at UCH The fourth annual "Take Your Child to Work Day" drew record numbers of kids curious to see just what mom and dad do when they head off to UCH each day. Left: the Clinical Lab was one of 23 departments to show their young audiences the hard work of health care. >>More
Dean Krugman's news The latest at the School of Medicine. >>More
Fitz Credit Union March 2012 
Health Care Cost Increase
Staff Health  Premiums to increase in July
UCH employees in the hospital's biggest self-funded plans will still pay lower than market rates. But along with the hospital, they'll be footing a double-digit increase. >>Go
Time to Enroll for Benefits 

All employees must enroll online by midnight, May 25. Inside: what's new. >>Go

 

Stroke Program
A Three-Peat for Stroke Program

The big multidisciplinary team earned its second consecutive recertification and plenty of praise from a Joint Commission surveyor late last month. "She put people on the spot," said one program leader. >>Go
 

Pump Racks
Brain Change for Med Pumps
A carefully scripted, two-week effort to upgrade the "brains" of the hospital's programmable medication pumps, vital to patient safety, proceeded smoothly and is on track to finish Friday.   >>Go
Talking about Results
In the Media, Marketing, Bits of Business blog: "Let's Talk" generates more than idle chatter; a blog referral. This feature is available exclusively to readers with access to the hospital's intranet site, the Hub. >>Go